Jazz and the Digital Revolution

Jazz and the Digital Revolution: GNP Records captures a transformative time in music history, the period in which digital culture took hold in the production, distribution and consumption of jazz. At the forefront of this epoch was the jazz-fusion label, GRP Records. Founded in the 1990s, GRP was Billboard magazine's number one contemporary jazz label. It had organised its recording, marketing and distribution practices around a full-scale digital philosophy, embodying the notion of jazz as a lifestyle brand. This books makes a case study of GRP Records in order to explore the relationship between jazz and digital culture, how this confluence gave rise to the 'smooth jazz' format, and how the industry negotiated cultural and technological shifts.

Simon Barber is a Research Fellow at the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research of Birmingham City University.